A former patient of a drug and alcohol counselor accused of killing a Torrance man while driving drunk and traveling more than a mile with him impaled in her windshield described the woman in court Thursday as someone who struggled with addiction.

Marco Salgado, a Torrance city employee, one-time patient of Sherri Wilkins and brother-in-law of the victim, Phillip Moreno, testified during a preliminary hearing in Los Angeles Superior Court that Wilkins told him about her own substance abuse in a therapy session weeks before the Nov. 24 hit-and run.

"She told us that if she ever drank again she would either land up in jail or kill someone," Salgado said. "She said she was sober for four years and she had a prior accident and that was her wake-up call. "

Salgado alleged in court Thursday that 52-year-old Wilkins told him about her prescription and illegal street drug use when both were at Twin Town Treatment Center in Torrance. Wilkins was a substance abuse counselor; Salgado was a patient who struggles with alcoholism.

"She said she used heroin at one time and something called bars," the street name for Xanax, Salgado testified.

In an odd twist, Salgado rerouted traffic near the scene of the collision while Torrance police officers gathered evidence.

Wilkins is charged with murdering Moreno. Prosecutors allege she barreled into him as Moreno crossed the street at the corner of Torrance Boulevard and Madrid Avenue. Wilkins was eventually cut off by other motorists at the corner of Crenshaw Boulevard and 182nd Street. She is alleged to have been drunk at the time of the her arrest.

"I smelled the odor of an alcoholic beverage. I also noted she had bloodshot eyes," Torrance police Officer Scott Norris testified.

Norris administered a blood-alcohol test, which proved that she was legally drunk at the time, he said.

Salgado and Norris' testimony came during the first day of a preliminary hearing in the case against Wilkins, who was handcuffed to a wheelchair Thursday. The hearing will resume Tuesday. Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Michael Pastor will decide whether Wilkins will stand trial.

At the time of her arrest, Wilkins was described by police and witnesses at the scene as panicked.

Stephanie Hicks, who was in the car that forced Wilkins to stop, testified that Wilkins was "shocked and repeating, 'I am in trouble, I am in trouble,' " after she stopped driving with Moreno lodged in the windshield.

"She said she was taking him to the hospital, that he jumped in front of her car and that she was in trouble," Hicks said.

Hicks and her friends cut off Wilkins and forced her to stop driving. They tried to assist Moreno, but he was in bad condition, Hicks said.

"He really couldn't talk that much; he was bloody. He had his shirt on; he was not wearing pants or shoes," she said.

Wilkins, who worked in the 4200 block of Torrance Boulevard, was stopped a mile from her house.

Moreno, 31, would later die from his injuries.

Wilkins' 2012 arrest was not her first run-in with the law. She has been convicted of burglary twice. If convicted of murder, she could face life in prison.

In 2010, Wilkins was arrested and charged with driving under the influence, being under the influence of a controlled substance and hit-and-run. She allegedly hit a power pole at 182nd Street and Hawthorne Boulevard and dragged the pole into the road, where it struck other cars, according to Torrance city officials.

But prosecutors dropped the case when Wilkins' blood-alcohol level came back at zero and the level of drugs in her system was too low to prove she was impaired.